ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- The camp of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned opposition parties against zoning their 2027 presidential ticket exclusively to the South, arguing that such a move could hand President Bola Tinubu an easy path to re-election.
Atiku’s media aide, Olusola Sanni, gave the warning in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja, insisting that opposition parties must prioritise political strategy and electoral realities over sentiment if they hope to unseat the ruling All Progressives Congress in 2027.
According to the statement, while the APC may retain its southern presidential arrangement around Tinubu, it would be politically dangerous for opposition parties to adopt the same approach without considering the nation’s electoral dynamics.
Sanni argued that no incumbent Nigerian president had ever been defeated by a challenger from the same geopolitical region.
“The first and most obvious question is this: how does a Southern opposition candidate realistically unseat a sitting Southern president? Nigerian political history offers no precedent for such an outcome.
“No incumbent president has ever been defeated by an opposition challenger from the same geopolitical bloc. To insist otherwise is to enter the contest already defeated,” he said.
READ ALSO 2027: Atiku Blasts Tinubu Over Economy, Insecurity
The Atiku camp also challenged the moral argument being advanced in support of another southern presidency, insisting that the South would have spent more years in power than the North by 2027.
“By 2027, the South would have held presidential power for approximately 18 years in the Fourth Republic, compared to about 10 years for the North.
“If the South retains power for another four years, that disparity widens even further.
“It therefore becomes difficult to understand the justice in an argument that seeks to deepen an already existing imbalance under the guise of equity,” Sanni stated.
The statement further accused some political actors of hypocrisy over the zoning debate, especially individuals who supported former President Goodluck Jonathan’s emergence in 2011 after the death of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
According to the Atiku camp, some of those now preaching rotational justice ignored similar arguments in the past when political interests favoured them.
“It is intellectually dishonest for those who enthusiastically supported a Southern presidency under Goodluck Jonathan in 2011, despite the North’s legitimate expectation under the informal zoning arrangement, to now suddenly posture as custodians of rotational justice.
“Principles do not become sacred only when they align with personal ambition,” the statement added.
While acknowledging the South-East’s desire to produce a Nigerian president, Sanni warned against reducing the aspiration to emotional politics or symbolic arrangements.
“The South-East deserves a sustainable and credible pathway to national leadership, not symbolic tokenism or bespoke arrangements tailored to satisfy one individual’s ambition,” he said.
The former vice president’s camp urged opposition leaders to focus on building a broad national coalition capable of defeating the incumbent administration rather than pursuing what it described as emotional political narratives.
“Defeating an incumbent president requires realism, not romanticism; strategy, not sentiment; honesty, not selective memory.
“The opposition must decide whether its goal is to make an emotional statement or to actually win power,” the statement concluded.